Tipton caters to Beaux Arts Bizarre crowd

Tuesday

Nov 24, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 24, 2009 at 1:37 PM

Aarik Danielsen

This weekend's Beaux Arts Bizarre at the Missouri Theatre promises to be another gathering of fascinating artists with stimulating works to share with all Columbia. The weekend's exhibit will feature culture-makers working in a variety of mediums, everything from jewelry to painting, ceramics to fibers, photography to woodworking and much, much more.

One of the distinctive artists who'll be present is Mo Tipton. Tipton has a taste for miniatures hand sculpted from polymer clay. Her online Etsy store, The Mouse Market, features miniature dollhouse food items and food-inspired jewelry. In a recent e-mail, Tipton said her work covers a spectrum of sizes "from roughly the size of a pencil eraser to slightly larger than a quarter. They're quite tiny."

A good sense of what to expect from Tipton's work comes from the description on her Etsy profile:

I have always been fascinated by miniatures, and as a child one of my most treasured playthings was a beautiful dollhouse that my parents made for me, and which was modeled after Miss Suzy's, my favorite storybook squirrel's, cozy tree house. I would spend hours perfecting Miss Suzy's living room arrangement and experimenting with endless presentations of the pots and pans. In short, I was obsessed.

Today, that obsession manifests itself as The Mouse Market, where, combined in a rather ironic fashion with my Pastry Chef Certificate (I had never quite envisioned myself specializing in inedible foods), I can create and share my ever-growing collection of tiny treats. I hope you enjoy my miniature foods as much as I enjoy making them!

Here are just a few examples of her work, shot in a way that reinforces her comments about the size of each piece:

To orient yourself to the nature and scope of Beaux Arts, read Lindsey Howald's article on last year's Bizarre here. For more information on this weekend's events, visit the Missouri Theatre's Web site and watch the Tribune for more extensive coverage including a Niche profile on participating artist Cherie Price.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.